Timaeus and Critias'The god wanted everything to be good, marred by as little imperfection as possible.' Timaeus, one of Plato's acknowledged masterpieces, is an attempt to construct the universe and explain its contents by means of as few axioms as possible. The result is a brilliant, bizarre, and surreal cosmos - the product of the rational thinking of a creator god and his astral assistants, and of purely mechanistic causes based on the behaviour of the four elements. At times dazzlingly clear, at times intriguingly opaque, this was state-of-the-art science in the middle of the fourth century BC. The world is presented as a battlefield of forces that are unified only by the will of God, who had to do the best he could with recalcitrant building materials. The unfinished companion piece, Critias, is the foundational text for the story of Atlantis. It tells how a model society became corrupt, and how a lost race of Athenians defeated the aggression of the invading Atlanteans. This new edition combines the clearest translation yet of these crucial ancient texts with an illuminating introduction and diagrams. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. |
Contents
Introduction | ix |
Note on the Texts | lviii |
Select Bibliography | lx |
Summary of Timaeus | lxix |
TIMAEUS | 1 |
CRITIAS | 101 |
Explanatory Notes | 122 |
Textual Notes | 162 |
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Common terms and phrases
ancient angle Aristotle Aristotle’s astronomy Athens Atlantis atomism beautiful blood bone bound called causes centre chaos constitution cosmogony cosmology cosmos created creation creatures Critias demiurge Democritus disease divine earth elements Empedocles entities eternity everything existence explain fact fire fixed stars flesh four give gods Greek heat heavenly bodies heavens Hermocrates human identity important inside intelligence island kind Leucippus ligaments like-to-like liver living marrow means moon mortal move movement myth Myth of Er naturally akin necessity once opposite orbits Panathenaea Parmenides particles perceptible Phaedo phenomena philosophy physical Pillars of Heracles planets Plato Platonic solids Poseidon possible principle produce reason receptacle regular circular motions Republic result revolutions ring sense shapes single Socrates solid Solon sort soul speech stades Statesman story substance teleology Theaetetus theory there’s things Timaeus Timaeus and Critias universe visible whole world-soul